by Rachel Cohen
Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religous Action Center of Reform Judaism
(Originally published on RACBlog. Visit the RACBlog to keep up with the latest news from UN COP15)

The Copenhagen talks are well underway, and we are excited to bring you a live update from the conference next Tuesday, December 15, at 3:30 p.m. EST. We hope you will join us to hear from David Waskow, Climate Change Program Director for Oxfam, who will provide up-to-the-minute news from Copenhagen. You'll also hear from Rabbi Warren Stone of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, MD, just days after his return from Copenhagen, about what the Jewish community is doing to get engaged. Register for the call to learn more about the progress at the climate talks, and for resources and ways for that you can get involved. The call is free, but lines are limited to the first 150 callers, so guarantee your space today!

Until then, read on for an update from Copenhagen from Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith, a sustainability consultant, long-time Jewish environmental activist, and a board member for Hazon and the American Friends of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership. You can follow all of Dr. Goldsmith's updates from the Copenhagen conference on her Green Strides Goes to Copenhagen blog, and read more of our blog posts from and about COP 15 here.

I arrived yesterday and found that the entire city of Copenhagen is organized around the UN Summit, COP 15. There were greeters at the airport, and on the Metro there are constant announcements to help us find our way around. I made my way to where I'm staying with the parents of my friend Jan where I received a warm welcome.

At the Bella Center, which claims it is the largest convention center in Scandinavia, I waited in a long line to register. The line was made up of people from all around the world. Next to me was Bertha Nherera of Participatory Ecological Land Use Management in Zimbabwe. She told me about how the farmers in Zimbabwe are experiencing the effects of climate change in the form of drought. She is working on helping local communities develop their own adaptation strategies. They have the know-how, she said, but they need resources to implement their plans. This is a recurring refrain. The representatives from developing countries need help from the wealthy ones.

The whole scene is quite overwhelming. In addition to the actual treaty negotiations, there are sessions on every topic you can imagine. It drives home the message that climate change is a huge, complex, multi-faceted challenge that is related to everything human beings do on this planet. To respond to it is going to require a lot more than tinkering. It is going to require second order change, in which the system itself is changed.

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